Old men say, “Stay off my lawn!” The Millennial generation of young adults says, “Stay out of my bedroom.”

And: “Keep your hands off my bong!”

A recent study by the respected Pew Research Center found that while young people continue to be heavily Democratic, compared to older generations their liberal values are more libertarian than economic. Says Pew, “Millennials’ liberalism is apparent in their views on a range of social issues such as same-sex marriage, interracial marriage and marijuana legalization. In all of these realms, they are more liberal than their elders.”

The Millennial view can be summarized as: “What I do on my private time—and who I do it with—is my own damn business.”

Hurray for the Millennials.

This is really a contest about the right not to be shamed for your personal reality, also about having the right to trust your own personal experience relative to what The People Upstairs tell you.

It’s about authenticity versus authority.

This battle has been going on for a very long time. Authenticity has its weaknesses (like, when I ‘authentically’ believe I’m Napoleon), but all in all, it’s a good thing when people feel empowered to trust themselves. What was it Martin Luther King said? “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” In this context, that means giving people the right to have their own experience and pursue their own pleasure without being shamed for it.

Folks, the camel’s nose is in the tent on this one. Because here’s my hunch: Once you give people the right to love who they want (and what that really means is love sexually who they want), the right to have as much fun and intimacy as possible while loving them sexually can’t be far behind.

For centuries (no, millennia!), cultures have been telling people, “Fun in bed—bad!”

The inevitable pushback is happening. We now have an entire movement, the ‘sex-positive movement,’ that is dedicated to the proposition that, well, put it this way: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of erotic Happiness.”

For years, the opponents of demon weed have been arguing that legalizing medical marijuana would make pot culturally okay. And you know something? On this one, they were right!

Something similar is happening here, with the Millennials taking the lead.